I met with the oncologist, Dr. Yap, for the first time. Angie had volunteered to go with me to be a second set (and probably better prepared to listen) set of ears. Luckily, Chuck also happened to be home that day and was also able to go. I really liked Dr. Yap right away. We set up a treatment plan and she even worked it out that I would be able to go to Arizona in early March for Cole's birthday and B9iley's performance in All-state band. My first round of chemotherapy was scheduled for February 29. I was also scheduled to have a port put in on February 13. Now, one thing I haven't mentioned is that one of my very dearest friends was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last September. She had her port put in and died in October. For this reason, having a port scared me to death. But it was necessary for my treatment and so we proceeded as planned. The port was put in, and chemo began.

Surgery day is finally here. My sister, Pat, came to stay with me and to help me through the first week of recovery. The doctor was able to do a resection by removing about 18 inches of the colon. The tumor had gone through the wall of the colon but no other organs were affected. He also took out 28 lymph nodes and so we waited for the pathology reports. In the meantime, I began the recovery from the surgery, itself. When pathology reports came in, 9 of the lymph nodes were affected. This meant definite chemotherapy.